THE SEA SERPENT

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 5

THE SEA SERPENT

SIGHTED ONCE MORE. By Telecraph-FrftM ABSoclatlon-Copyrleht Sydney, December 22. The officers of tho Strathardle, which arrived to-day from Auckland. report passing a sea serpent on Sunday in tho Tasman Sea. The monster was two hundred feet, in length, with a head like a . crocodile's. A large fin showed out of the water. Its body, which was of bright colours, tapered considerably at tho tail. The sea serpent was travelling slowly. II was sighted about two hundred miles off the New Zealand coast. WHAT THE ZOOLOGISTS SAY. The soa serpent, although ■ its existence is discredited by many naturalists, has been vouched for by sailors since the earliest times. Tho early Norse writers woro well acquainted with it, and one of them, Olaus Magnus, describes it as 200 feet long and 20 feet round, and states that, it not only ate calves, sheep, and swine, but also "disturbs ships, rising up like a mast, and sometimes snaps some of tho men from.the deck." Mr. \V. E. Hovle, F.Z.S., states that no satisfactory explanation has yet been given of certain descriptions ot tho sea serpent. Among this class ho mentions tho huge snako seen by certain of the crew of the l'aulino in the South Atlantic Ocean in iB7o, which was coiled twice round a large siwrm whale, and then towered up many feet into tho air and finally dragged tho wholo to tho bottom. Ono of the most remarkable was the creature seen from tho Royal yacht Osborne in 1877. Two different aspects were recorded—the first beiug a ridge, .'JO feet in length, of triangular fins, each rising 5 to 6 feet abovo tho water, whilo the second view showed a largo round head 6 feet in diameter, with Jingo flappers, which moved like those of a turtle. Mr. lloylc states that it appears that whilo with very few exceptions the socalled "sea serpents" can bo explained by reference to somo well-known animal or other natural object, there is still a residuum sufficient to prevent modern zoologists from denying tho possibility that some such ereaturc mav after all exist. A number of porpoises swimming ono behind the other and half emerging from the water are thought to havo been tho basis of somo accounts of the sea serpent. A largo mass of seaweed lias on more than one occasion been mistaken for_ a marina monster. Basking sharks, which aro sometimes 30 feet long, havo a habit of swimming one behind the other, with tho dorsal fin and the upper lobo of tho tail appearing abovo the water; and would thus produco (ho appearance ,of a body 00 feet or moro ill iength moving through the water. Gigantic squids aro believed to have been mistaken off the North American coast for sea serpents, and ribbon-fish aro supposed to bo the explanation of other stories. '